DU’s Drew Shore, Nick Shore and Chris Nutini visited a split-squad peewee practice with the Colorado Thunderbirds and Littleton Hawks A Red on Tuesday night at South Suburban Ice Arena. The Shores’ youngest brother, Baker, plays for the triple-A Thunderbirds, and Drew, Nick and Nutini grew up playing for the Hawks.

T-Birds coach Kent Murphy introduces DU defenseman Chris Nutini, who is the first of three Pios to speak to the boys about playing college hockey.

The Pioneers trio represent the three Littleton double-A national titles won by head coach Kent Murphy, who is now the Thunderbirds’ head coach. Nutini was on the 2001 team — Colorado’s first double-A national champion. Drew and Nick led the Hawks to the 2003 and 2005 national titles, respectively.

Also pictured is former DU defenseman Zach Blom, a Thunderbirds assistant coach and LHA co-director, and his father, Buddy, the former DU goalie who serves as the T-Birds’ goalie coach. The T-Birds also are coached by former LHA star Kevin Fredrick and former Avalanche defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn.

Great staff, eh?

The LHA peewees are coached by Kevin Whalen, who was the bench boss last season for the Thunderbirds’ U18 team.

DU hopes to have better play in front of goalie Sam Brittain. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

Goaltending, coach George Gwozdecky acknowledged during yesterday’s media day, is the question mark of this year’s University of Denver hockey team. But the 17th-year DU coach also emphasized the need for improvement in his team’s play away from the puck.

“There were times last year where (former goalie) Marc Cheverie really made us look a lot better than we were,” Gwozdecky said. “I think at times last year, not that it was part of our philosophy or our system, I think we got very lax and careless at times, perhaps saving our energy for the fun part of the game — the offensive part of the game — and not really doing as good a job defensively.

My insiders at the Hilltop say forward Kyle Ostrow has been named captain of the DU hockey team.

Good choice. Ostrow wore an “A” last season as a junior. He’s a level-headed young man with great character and a strong work ethic. For the past two seasons I’ve been saying the Calgary native has been one of DU’s best end-to-end players. Very responsible. ‘Strow was sixth in scoring last season with 26 points (16 goals). He was tied for third in plus-minus (plus-14).

I also learned original Ostrow classmates Jesse Martin, Chris Nutini and Dustin Jackson will wear the As. Martin, from Edmonton, will be a senior center, Nutini a senior defenseman from Centennial and Jackson a fourth-year junior forward from Omaha. Jackson took a medical redshirt last season after breaking his leg in preseason drills. Nutini and Jackson joined DU as recruited walk-ons from the North American Hockey League.

The program’s official announcement about Ostrow and company is expected soon.

The losses of D David Carle (heart condition) and F Stepan Novotny (major-junior) have trimmed DU’s incoming freshman class to four. Question is, will the Pios add more players?

Probably not, according to DU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Steve Miller. Carle will attend DU and keep his scholarship, and Novotny’s full deal likely will be invested among current walkons, Miller said.

In my mind, Novotny’s loss isn’t that big a deal. He was asked to think about deferring his deal until 2009 because of the program returns 11 of its top 12 forwards, and you know No. 1 recruit Joe Colborne is going to be among the top 12, so the Pios are going to be just fine up front.

In addition to Colborne, who went 16th overall in the recent NHL draft to Boston, the Pios add C/W Nate Dewhurst and Colorado native Luke Salazar. Like Colborne, Dewhurst will be on a full-ride and will have every opportunity to play. That means 13 guys, including 11 with experience, will battle for 12 spots.

So Novotny, in my mind, was expendable. He could have been one of those young, talented kids that need a ton of ice time to gain confidence … a work in progress. But without him, the team will put more experience out there.

The bigger question is what to do without Carle? He could have been the team’s top offensive defenseman this season. Miller says a healthy John Ryder and fellow sophomores-to-be Jon Cook and Joey Brehm will give the team a chance to have reliable depth.

The top six D-men will be seniors JP Testwuide and Patrick Mullen, junior Cody Brookwell, Ryder, sophomore Chris Nutini and freshman John Lee. Senior Julian Marcuzzi, Cook and Brehm will provide depth.

Certainly no Aaron McKenzies, Ryan Caldwells, Brett Skinners, Matt Carles or Chris Butlers in the mix, but I’m told Ryder and Lee could become good two-way players at this level. We’ll see.

To follow up on the Tyler Bozak post last night . . . let’s talk DU overall. We know with Bozak returning, plus 10 of the top 12 other forwards — plus possible NHL No. 1 rounder Joe Colborne coming in — the Pioneers are going to be experienced and deep up front.

I like the back line, too. Indeed, senior Andrew Thomas and Chris Butler (signed with the Sabres) are going to be missed, and Butler would have been an all-everything guy as a senior, but the Pioneers have what amounts to 2 1/2 studs coming in on the b-line. (I put it that way because one of them might be a sophomore in October.)

Freshmen-to-be John Lee and David Carle are blue chip all the way, and don’t forget freshman/sophomore John Ryder, who only played eight games last season before breaking his wrist. Ryder, who came in a year early because of Keith Seabrook’s 2007 summer departure, is going to be a great player, and he might recieve a medical redshirt and re-do his freshman season.

So think about it. DU still has seniors-to-be Patrick Mullen and J.P. Testwuide, who both can skate the puck end to end, and junior-to-be Cody Brookwell (a big, defensive kid) and sophomore-to-be Chris Nutini (ditto), plus soph-to-be Jon Cook (unproven).

I like the look of the corps. Lee and Carle will play right away, because they’re full scholarship, and if they’re as good as advertised, there could me a nice mix with this group, and depth.

So, we’ve covered the forwards and D. What’s the biggest key about the 2008-09 Pios? Yep, goaltending. Freshman Marc Cheverie didn’t get much of a chance last season, but he’ll be The Man beginning in October. The classy Pete Mannino officially handed the GT reigns to Chevie at Friday’s banquet, saying that Chevie has all the tools to give DU a chance to have a very good team.

“Good to have it over with,” David Carle told me Thursday night. “I’m exicted to have it over with and excited about the upcoming year.”

David, also a defenseman, has 34 points in 43 games for Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep team and is ranked No. 74 in Central Scouting’s midterm rankings. But more impressive is this:

On Jan. 12 I spoke with Matt Carle before the DU-Wisconsin game at Magness Arena, and with a straight face, DU’s first Hobey Baker Award winner told me his little brother “is better than me.”

“All I got to say is, well see,” David Carle said of his brother’s compliment. “He’s a great player himself and I have a lot to prove. I don’t know if I would say that, but it’s very flattering _ coming from a big brother who usually picks on me.”

“I think Denver would be good for the reasons I like it, not for the reasons my brother when there. So it didn’t have a bearing, other than he had a good experience there and really enjoyed it.”

Matt Carle’s comments about his brother reminded me of a conversation I had with Paul Comrie in 1997. The former DU star center told me his little brother, Mike _ who was looking to sign with DU or Michigan _ was better than him. Sure enough, Mike Comrie had a terrific career in Ann Arbor, Mich., and is a top-line NHL center, currently leading the New York Islanders in scoring.

Anyway, this is a huge pledge for the Pioneers, whose back-line will lose Andrew Thomas to graduation and possibly junior Chris Butler to the Buffalo Sabres.
J.P. Testwuide will be a senior, Cody Brookwell a junior and Chris Nutini and John Ryder sophomores, but Butler _ who I believe is DU’s best overall player _ is the only big offensive threat, although Ryder has the potential.

If David Carle is even close to as good as his brother, DU will again have that key guy on the back-line to skate the puck out and get the transition game going. And, of course, talent like that makes everyone around him better.

David said he didn’t choose DU because of his brother.

“I think Denver would be good for the reasons that I like it, not for the reasons my brother experienced when was there. So it didn’t have a bearing, other than he had a good experience there and really enjoyed it.”

David said his decision came down to DU and St. Cloud State. He also visited BC, BU and Michigan State.

Here’s Carle’s stats this year. Also, I added those of Brett Kostolansky, listed from Denver. I don’t know anything about Kostolansky, but on paper he looks a lot like David Carle.

THEY ALL PLAYED youth hockey for the Littleton Hawks, arguably the top development system in Colorado (not including state all-star orginizations).

Tim Gibbar, president of the Littleton Hockey Association, sent me the following alumni “starter” list, which he says is incomplete. But it’s still very impressive, partly because most of the Avalanche kids play here. Bourque, Roy, Blake, Hartley, Foote, Sakic and other former or current Avs have sent their kids to LHA. Many other big names — former DU stars Jesse Cook, Ryan Dingle, J.D. Corbin — as well as current Pios — Tyler Ruegsegger and Chris Nutini — went through the program. CC freshman goalie Richard Bachman also played at LHA.

Yes, I’m partial to LHA because my son is a Hawk, currently in his final year of the Initiation Program (squirts next year) but his participation helped me uncover how many great players Littleton has produced, and the names speak volumes.

I visited with DU fifth-year senior defenseman Zach Blom recently after the Denver-area native returned from a suspension for breaking a team rule. He’s eligible to play this weekend against visiting Minnesota-Duluth but coach George Gwozdecky said he’s not ready.

Personally, I could care less what Blom did to begin the season away from the team. He’s a really fine young man, and I know that he regrets what he did and will learn from it. Trust me, this is one kid that’s destined to do great things in life. He should not be labeled a trouble-maker.

As I expected, Blom spoke about the rest of the season in unselfish terms. He’s only played in 26 career games (six as a freshman and 10 apiece as a sophomore and junior) but he revels in his role of a practice player that helps the young scholarship kids get better.

That’s not easy to do. Practices are grinding. Rewards are little (at least in the public forum). And he’s going on his fifth year of this. Blom’s chances of playing this season might be more difficult than his first three years, because juniors Patrick Mullen and J.P. Testwuide are playing D and the Pios are trying to get freshmen Chris Nutini and John Ryder ice time as the sixth guy.

Still, Blom, the son of former DU goalie Buddy Blom — the longtime hockey coach based — has a terrific attitude.

HOW TOUGH WAS THE SUSPENSION?
“It was really tough. We have an awesome bunch of guys, and it was hard not being able to go through everything with them in the preseason. But I still feel like I’m a big part of everything here. This might be the tighest group I’ve ever been with, as a team. It’s just been awesome, and I’m excited to play.”

HOW MUCH DID THE SUSPENSION HURT YOUR CHANCES?
“It probably did set me back. We’ll see from here. I know that I’m good enough to be in the lineup, and we’ll see if that materializes. If not, my job is always to support the team, first and foremost, and push the other guys to get better. I’ll support whoever is on the ice, whether I’m on the bench or watching from the seats.”

This is the first game of the two referee experiment, to be used in some 60 WCHA games (or WCHA vs. nonconference games) this season. There were three penalties called in the first 5:34, but each had merit. Only five in the first period …

DU super soph Rhett Rakhshani is not in the lineup. He took a big hit in Sunday’s game against Calgary and sustained a concussion. Rock, who led DU with 26 assists last season, also likely won’t play Saturday, the team says.

The Pios used 11 forwards and seven defenseman. Part if the reason is Rock’s absence, but it’s also a good opportunity to get two freshmen D some game time. Newcomers Chris Nutini and John Ryder played, but Ryder didn’t see much action in the first period.

If both develop well, DU could move Patrick Mullen and/or JP Testwuide back to forward. The two juniors are beginning at D to give Mannino additional support, but Mullen has good offensive skills and Testwuide was a terrific forechecker last season before moving back to where he played as a freshman …

Frosh Tyler Bozak and Kyle Ostrow played on the first PP unit with Ruegsegger, Trotter and Butler. Newcomers Anthony Maiani and Jesse Martin were on the second unit with Gifford, Mullen and Thomas.

I was at DU captain’s practice Wednesday and discovered the following:

– Junior Patrick Mullen, who played a little D last year, will begin the season at defense. He’s listed as a forward, but the Pios want to firm up things in front of Peter Mannino right off the bat. That means sophomore Julian Marcuzzi and four freshmen – Chris Nutini, Jon Cook, Joey Brehm and John Ryder – will vie for the sixth spot. Senior Zach Blom will enter that picture when he returns from suspension.

The top five are: Thomas, Butler, Brookwell, Testwuide and Mullen. My guess is Marcuzzi will be the sixth guy.

The corps could change by January, or earlier. If Blom or two of the freshman prove they can play, Mullen and Testwuide could be moved to forward. Both played the majority of games last season up front.

I like what the coaching staff is doing. This team is being built around Mannino. Give him enough support and the guy will take this team far. Let the young forwards develop slowly. One or two goals a game could be enough.

— BUTLER IS NO CHEF … catching headline, eh? I spoke with Chris and saw his burned right hand … IT’S BAD. He was heating up oil in a pan, which caught fire and, ultimately, spilled on the hand that was holding the pan. I’m going to get his story in the paper — it’s that interesting — so I can’t go further right now. But he’s fine and in full practice swing. He will, however, have a nasty scar. Right now most of his hand is pink, because the old skin is dead.

— RUEGSEGGER VS. BACHMAN. Another story I need to hold for the paper, but I spoke with Tyler about CC frosh goalie Richard Bachman, who will play a lot this season. Tyler and Richard were teammates on Littleton’s AA peewee squad that won the national championship in 2001. Another example of how local kids are developing into big-time NCAA players.